12 minutes

We went to Rusk today to do the autoambulator. It was more challenging than I expected it to be for Linda. I'd say that's a good thing. It means that the long drive there and back isn't wasted on something she doesn't need.

She did 12 minutes of walking on it. It has robotic arms that attach to your legs and move them. So although 12 minutes doesn't sound like very long, it was 12 minutes walking much faster than she usually walks. By much faster, I mean something like 0.6 miles per hour.

Yes, that's slow. But don't kid yourself. She felt like she was running the whole time.

Working toward that triathalon

So how do you top the autoambulator? You'd think by spending the rest of the day sitting quietly in one place. Or maybe napping. But I took advantage of the after Christmas sales to buy a bicycle trainer for Linda. It came today, so Ellie and I attached it to Linda's bicycle (so she can bike at home).

Well naturally, we couldn't resist trying it out. It's probably not very surprising that it was very hard. We had to make two tries at just getting on the bike, but after a bit of experimenting we got things situated and the seat lowered so she could get up (with help).

It's pretty hard for her to run the pedels. She works like the devil to bring her toes up enough. If she doesn't get her toes up, then her feet slip right off. After a bit, she was doing it pretty successfully, but I suspect we'll be tying her feet to the pedels for a while until she improves. That's nothing new; we always tied her feet to the bike at Rusk too.